Epsom College case studies (10)

Impact of partnership work done in 2024 (ISC annual Census 2025)

• 12 state schools involved
• 501-1000 state school pupils involved
• 70 staff hours given

Impact Statement

Staff, pupils and parents at Epsom College support their local communities in a number of different ways including:

Covid-19

Support for Keyworker Children 

• From day one of lockdown, our door were open and classrooms filled with the children of keyworkers. Children from the College sat alongside those from the local community, taking part in lessons, activities and enjoying free meals.

Boarding Houses for NHS workers

• In the first few weeks of lockdown, the local NHS Trust of Epsom & St Helier found itself on the frontline, with hospitals inundated with cases. Epsom stepped up, and offered 117 beds in our Boarding Houses free of charge to NHS staff, for as long as was required.

Providing PPE Around the World

• The College procured materials and utilised its 3D printers to produce over 3,000 full-face visors to hospitals, care homes, charities and frontline staff throughout Surrey and London.

• A Fifth Form living in Bangladesh during lockdown produced 250 visors for local hospitals and the police, with the guidance and support of Epsom staff.

Fundraising for the Frontline

• Nine Lower Sixth students ran the length of the UK from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 31 days. They raised £3,353 for the NHS.

• In a separate initiative, pupils, parents and staff raised just under £12,000 to help fund the Covid Recovery Centre at Headley Court, to aid the rehabilitation of patients severely affected by the coronavirus.

Supporting State Schools

• Epsom College shared our resources and our experiences of remote learning with our colleagues in the Bourne Education Trust-  a partnership of 16 schools throughout Surrey and Hampshire.

• We also supported the Invicta Academy, an online ‘pop-up’ school offering catch up lessons throughout the summer to those pupils whose education may have suffered in lockdown.

Charity

• The College supports various charitable events throughout the year and raised £13,781 for causes including The Children’s Trust, World Child Cancer, Save The Children, The Earl Haig Fund, Help for Heroes, the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation and Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation.

• In addition, the College has been a long-time supporter of Growbaby, working with the Vineyard Church, distributing donated toys for needy families in the borough of Kingston each December. ·

• One house supported Shooting Star Children’s hospices for five years, raising between £500 and £700 for them each year.

• Over £15,000 was raised to support the Terabai Desai Eye Hospital in India. Every two years, our Sixth Form medical students visit the hospital and assist with work there.

Community Projects and Service

• The College’s Service programme sends sixth form pupils into the local community to offer an hour of service per week to local projects, local maintained schools, gardeners, foodbanks, hospitals, disabled groups and ad hoc seasonal projects, complemented by use of the College's facilities by local maintained infants, junior and special schools and IT assistance for various community groups. The programme has provided over 13,500 hours of service in more than 40 settings.

• Within the auspices of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme across 2018-19 the College completed 2,795 hours of learning a skill, 3,016 hours of physical activity and 2,795 hours of Volunteering in our local community. The social value of these hours, as calculated by the Director of the DoE South East Region, amounts to £12,158.

• Working with a member of staff on a community project for Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, the Year 9s painted large canvasses which will decorate a children’s disabled centre respite centre in Epsom.

• The Chaplaincy Team hosts Wallace Fields Infant School Reception Year who visit the school on a field trip (once per year in the Autumn Term for 50 minutes x 2 classes). The staff give them a presentation about the chapel and then organise activities with them, such as a treasure hunt and mindfulness drawing of stained glass windows.

• The College has begun a relationship with the Bourne Educational Trust to place students as classroom helpers in their primary and secondary schools. The school is piloting the scheme with six pupils this year – this link may grow into a service programme link in due course.

• 18 Year 10 pupils began a painting project to decorate the walls of a local care home for disabled children. They will complete this over six months as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. The care home is also set to become a service programme link.

• The College has offered Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expertise to Bourne Educational Trust schools to help support their own provision. The College has also donated kit such as tents and rucksacks and camping equipment that was no longer needed to local schools and organisations. In addition the school has offered to host a Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme Managers’ meeting at Epsom College in due course.

• The College has led charity fundraising initiatives that have supported the building of toilets in schools and communities in the developing world through the charity toilettwinning.org as well as raising funds for the Tarabai Desai Eye Hospital and supporting the work of the hospital by accompanying pupil volunteers.

Sport

• Hockey Inner City Masterclass - The Sports Department brought 30 children over from St Immanuel & St Andrews Primary School in Streatham for a hockey training session with four GB players. In addition, a further 30+ children attend from the local area (Epsom, Banstead, Ashtead). The training session lasted for 90 minutes, followed by a tour of the school’s facilities. The school is looking to turn this into a two month programme in 2020.

• The College hosted a ‘Get Moving’ charity event for the local community. This included inclusive events for all ages, abilities and disabilities.

• The College’s rifle range is used by the local rifle club and in the past it has been used by scouts and cadet unit. Staff coach cadets from all over the UK and from very different backgrounds.

• The school hosts an annual football tournament for teams from 5 local Junior Schools (50 children) and an annual netball tournament for the Banstead community.

Academic

• Hosting 18 children from St Martin’s Junior School the College organised a Religious Studies Masterclass.

• A music festival is held annually at the College for approximately 70 children from a local primary school.

• Local senior schools are invited to attend the Higher Education Conference and Fair that takes place onsite with 40-50 representatives from universities and employers.

• PASCO data logging training was organised for Physics teachers and a technician from Cheam High school as Cheam had just started to use the new data logging equipment.

• The College shares resources with Epsom and Ewell’s geography department as and when requested. Additionally they have joined the Surrey Geographers teach meet group that was initiated by College staff.

• As a member of CAS (CAS - Computing at School organisation), staff contribute to discussions and participate in events and give feedback on shared resources.

• The College regularly invites teachers and parents from local state secondary and primary schools to attend various PSD lectures, workshops, training & resource swapping events. These take place 2 to 3 times per term, and last approximately 2 hours.

• The school hosts various events across a week in October with Love Me Love My Mind, a mental health charity in Epsom that sees approximately 20 pupils and staff visiting St Barnabas Church to have tea with local residents. The school also reciprocates by offering the campus grounds and facilities to host mental health lectures by local experts in their field.

• Working with NESCOT College, the College offers their IT students and SEN students Emotional Intelligence/stress & anxiety management advice sessions as well as digital safety sessions.

• The College organises a weekly 1 hour Digital Safety session every February as part of Safer Internet Week for vulnerable adults from the Sunny Bank Trust prepared and delivered by 15 pupils on site.

• Staff visit the Brilliant Club in London to deliver free wellbeing at work sessions for their employees.

• The school hosts an OCR PE Moderation day with 30+ schools and colleges, mostly state schools, enabling the assessments to take place using the College’s facilities. The College also allows the use of the pool for an assessment day in order for coursework filming to take place (something that is now impossible to do in public sport centre pools).

• The College has set up a local Exam Officers network who meet on site once, sometimes twice a year, and is chaired by an OCR representative. In addition the College hosts a conference every November, inviting exam officers from and around Surrey on the behalf of JCQ, the exam governing body.

• The College host the Oxbridge Interview Night for approximately 100 students in the Surrey area at both state and independent schools who have made an application to study at Oxford University or Cambridge University. All students receive a formal interview from a subject specialist who has had access to their Personal Statement before the interview. Students receive written feedback after the interview.

Sponsorship

The College sponsors a variety of local clubs and organisations, including:

• Sutton & Epsom RFC

• Surbiton HC

• Wimbledon Rugby Club

• Epsom Symphony Orchestra

• The Epsom Playhouse

Individual Staff Collaboration - undertaken in their own time

For local groups and organisations

• A member of staff conducts safeguarding training for volunteers within the parish church community and is able to do this safeguarding voluntary work because of the work and experience at the College

• Another member of staff is the ‘on the wards’ volunteer at their local hospital, St Peters Chertsey, working 2 shifts per month

• One member of staff chairs the monthly meetings of the Cuddington Residents’ Association, organising fundraising events during the year for local community projects and charities.

• A member of staff and her family help with the Sunnybank Trust in the Christmas holidays, wrapping presents in the Ashley Centre.

For local schools

• 3 staff members are Governors at local state and independent schools, using their expertise to support the local community

Sport

A number of staff are able to provide support for local sports clubs given their role at the College. This includes:

• Surrey Rugby Coach for both the trial day, training and match days. This involves approximately 140 boys.

• Being the designated first aider for a local hockey team in Guildford.

• Harlequins Academy Coach

• Volunteering as Central Surrey Schools Sports Association Chairman and Treasurer, a role that includes responsibility for administration in working in conjunction with England Athletics.

• Overseeing the District X-Country trials held at Nonsuch Park and District Athletics annual championships held at Sutton Arena. There are 18 schools in the District with multiple teams entering competitions across the 11-18 yrs age groups- 13 State and 5 Independent schools.